Much of the advance in standard of living over the past twenty or so years results from the use of advanced communications, data processing, and environmental sensing techniques. The devices used in such communications, processing, and sensing generally become more useful as their sizes are decreased, such that more of them can be used. For example, computers and cellular phones require ever-smaller elements, and become more capable as the number of devices which can be accommodated increases. Similarly, lightweight and reliable sensors can be used in large numbers in vehicles to aid in control and, in the case of spacecraft and military vehicles, to aid in carrying out their missions.
Most modern semiconductor devices, and other devices important for the above purposes, are generally energized or biased by direct voltages. As devices have become smaller, their powering requirements also advantageously decrease. Unfortunately, a concomitant of low power requirements is often sensitivity to unintended noise or fluctuations in the applied power. It is easy to understand that extremely small transistors, which ordinarily operate at two or three volts, could be destroyed by application of tens of volts. It is less apparent but true that small-percentage variations or noise on the applied powering voltage may result in degradation of the operating characteristics of semiconductor and other devices and the circuits in which they operate, which may adversely affect the performance. It is a commonplace that conventional radio and television receivers will respond to noise on or sudden changes in their supply voltages with aural or visual distortions, or both.
In general, electronic equipments require direct voltages for their power sources. There are two general sources of electrical energy which can be used to provide the power, and these two sources are batteries, which provide direct voltage, and power mains of an alternating voltage. When power mains are the source of electrical energy, it is common to rectify the alternating voltage to achieve a direct voltage. The power mains are used to drive machine motors in addition to electronic equipment, so the mains voltages tend to be higher than the voltages required for electronic equipment, and rectified voltages also tend to be higher than desired or usable. In the past, transformers have been used to convert the mains power to voltages more compatible with electronic equipment. However, transformers operating at 60 Hz tend to be much larger than is desirable in modern miniaturized equipment. It might be thought that there are no problems with the powering of electronic equipment from batteries, which directly provide direct voltage. However, batteries have the same general problem as that of mains powering, namely that available direct voltage does not necessarily correspond with the desired operating voltage. One modern technique for producing voltages for powering electronic equipment is that of use of a switching power supply or switching converter, which changes a direct source voltage to a different direct voltage.
A switching power converter can operate from a direct voltage derived from the power mains or from a battery, and can either increase or decrease the output voltage relative to the input voltage. These switching power converters take many different forms, some examples of which include those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,163,926 issued Aug. 7, 1979 in the name of Willis; U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,791, issued Feb. 26, 1980 in the name of Hicks; U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,892 issued Nov. 3, 1981 in the name of Scott; U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,722 issued Aug. 2, 1988 in the name of Pruitt; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,464 issued Feb. 11, 1997 in the name of Linkowski et al.